Trump Agrees With Rep. Gowdy: 'I Wish I Did' Pick a Different AG

Attorney General Jeff Sessions should have informed President Donald Trump that he would have had to recuse himself from the Russia investigation a lot sooner, Rep. Trey Gowdy said Wednesday, and the president quickly agreed.

"If I were the president and I picked someone to be the country's chief officer and they later said, 'By the way, I'm not going to be able to participate,' I would be frustrated, too," Gowdy said on "CBS This Morning."

"There are lots of good lawyers in the country. He could have picked someone else."

Trump agreed on Twitter, quoting Gowdy and adding "I wish I did" to Gowdy's comments about finding a different attorney general.

....There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!” And I wish I did!

The president also tweeted out other quotes Gowdy made about Sessions in the CBS interview.

Rep.Trey Gowdy, “I don’t think so, I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. If I were the President and I picked someone to be the country’s....

....chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, ‘oh by the way I’m not going to be able to participate in the most important case in the office, I would be frustrated too...and that’s how I read that - Senator Sessions, why didn’t you tell me before I picked you.....

Gowdy also told CBS that the FBI had no choice but to "run out a lead" that someone connected with Trump's 2016 campaign was making claims about Russia contacts, and it had an "obligation" to investigate any allegations.

"Based on what I have seen, I don't know what the FBI could have done or should have done other than run out a lead that someone loosely connected with the campaign was making assertions about Russia," he said. "I would think you would want the FBI to find out whether there was any validity to what those people were saying."

He added that after a briefing with key intelligence officials concerning the FBI's use of an informant to contact Trump's campaign officials, he is certain that the agency would agree that Russia and its intentions toward the United States were the target of the investigation and not Trump.

"The fact that two people who were loosely connected to the Trump campaign may have been involved doesn't diminish the fact that Russia was the target and not the campaign," Gowdy told CBS.

He added that he's never met with or spoken with Trump, but as a former prosecutor, he has never referred to an informant as a "spy," like Trump has with the FBI's informant.

"Undercover, informant, confidential informant, those are all words I'm familiar with," Gowdy said. "I've never heard the term 'spy' used."

Informants, however, are used "all day, every day by law enforcement," said Gowdy.

"You call them confidential informants because you don't want everyone to know they have a relationship with law enforcement," said Gowdy. "I can't think of any major case I handled in 20 years where there was not someone willing to provide information. It's up to law enforcement to validate or ratify the information, but you have to have people coming forward and what law enforcement does is up to them. "

The senator also said that if Trump would examine certain documents, he would agree that the FBI did what it had to when investigating Russian involvement in his campaign.

"I think his lawyers have an obligation to share with him what Devin [Nunes] and Paul [Ryan] and I saw last week," said Gowdy. "I'm convinced when he sees it, he's going to say 'you know what, that's what I told [James] Comey I wanted the FBI to do.'"

Trump should also sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller and tell the former FBI director exactly what he's been telling the public, that he "didn't collude with Russia, he doesn't know anything about it, and if anyone in his campaign did, he wants the public to know it," Gowdy said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions should have informed President Donald Trump that he would have had to recuse himself from the Russia investigation a lot sooner, Rep. Trey Gowdy said Wednesday, and the president quickly agreed.